


Two Realms - The Appendices

by Ajax the Great (Ajax_the_Great), The Jingo (The_King_in_White)



Series: Two Realms Belonging to Man [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Appendixes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-11
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-04-20 04:41:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 27
Words: 12,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4773893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ajax_the_Great/pseuds/Ajax%20the%20Great, https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_King_in_White/pseuds/The%20Jingo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Notes regarding original content, alterations from canon, and commentary within our Two Realms Belonging to Man universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Jutsu

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Dance of the Dog God](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/195712) by Tartarun. 



> Disclaimer: We do not own Naruto, and nor do we make any profit writing fanfiction or providing other fan content in regards to that franchise.
> 
> This is not a story. This is the simply appendixes of our greater Two Realms universe.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Original techniques as well as alterations to the ranking, characteristics, or power of canon techniques.

 

Altered Canon Techniques:

_Chidori Senbon_ \- Is now considered an S-ranked jutsu by reason of requiring both elemental and shape manipulation mastery. Refer to "Commentary: S-Rank Limitations" for further reasoning.

 _Chidori Eisou_ \- The Chidori Sharp Spear is now considered an S-ranked jutsu by reason of requiring both elemental and shape manipulation mastery. Refer to "Commentary: S-Rank Limitations" for further reasoning.

 _Raikiri_ \- The Raikiri now differs from the Chidori in being more than simply an overloaded version of the originating technique. Where the Chidori uses lightning element mastery to generate electricity from the hand and a minimal of shape manipulation to simply direct it, the Raikiri uses complete mastery of shape manipulation to create a true lightning blade encasing the hand.

 _Fuuton: Rasengan_ \- Is now considered an S-ranked jutsu by reason of requiring both elemental and shape manipulation mastery. Refer to "Commentary: S-Rank Limitations" for further reasoning.

 _Bijuudama_ \- is now considered an SSS-ranked jutsu. Refer to "Commentary: S-Rank Limitations" for reasoning.

 _Rasenshuriken_ \- Is now considered an SS-ranked jutsu by reason of requiring both elemental and shape manipulation mastery. Refer to "Commentary: S-Rank Limitations" for further reasoning.

 _Yagai_ \- Is now considered an SS-ranked jutsu. Refer to "Commentary: S-Rank Limitations" for reasoning.

 _Sekizou_ \- Is now considered an S-ranked jutsu. Refer to "Commentary: S-Rank Limitations" for reasoning.

 _Enton: Kagutsuchi_ \- Is now considered an SS-ranked jutsu by reason of requiring both elemental and shape manipulation mastery. Refer to "Commentary: S-Rank Limitations" for further reasoning.

 _Susanoo_ \- Is now considered an SS-ranked jutsu. Refer to "Commentary: S-Rank Limitations" for reasoning.

 _Gedou: Rinne Tensei no Jutsu_ \- is considered a SSS-ranked jutsu by reason of complexity and kekkei genkai requirements. Additionally, the Fourth Databook is disregarded and it no longer automatically always costs the user's life in exchange for revival.

* * *

 

Original Techniques:

_Uchiha Sekkendou_ \- The Uchiha Clan's Way of The Intercepting Fist. A taijutsu style developed for use with the Sharingan. An aggressive form of martial arts that uses pure agility to take advantage of temporary openings in an enemy's defense spotted by the Sharingan for a swift take-down. Defence is primarily based around dodging strikes, and redirection of force when dodging is impossible. Efficiency is greatly reduced without use of the Sharingan.


	2. Original Characters

**Original Characters:**

 

Sasaki Umeko - Jounin of Konoha and a member of its black ops force ANBU. Serves undercover as the secretary of the Hokage. Possesses a chin-length dark green bob cut, hazel eyes, and a thick ropy red scar curving up from the right corner of her lips to her cheekbone.


	3. Geography

_Full Credit for the Map goes to the amazing Shadow Rebirth._

* * *

  ** _Countries:_ **

* * *

  **Hi no Kuni:** Approximately 100,000,000 citizens.

 _Samurai_ : Approximately 900,000 members.

 _Konohagakure Shinobi_ : Approximately 100,000 members.

 _Untrained Chakra Capables_ : Approximately 2,000,000 citizens.

The most agricultural of the Five Great Countries, Fire Country boasts the largest population of any single country in the known world. Bolstered by a intermediate position between several nations and a temperate climate, Hi no Kuni is an economic and military powerhouse. Its Hidden Village - Konohagakure - is the largest and most prosperous of all shinobi villages.

* * *

 **Kaze no Kuni:** Approximately 25,000,000 citizens

 _Samurai:_ Approximately 300,000 members.

 _Sunagakure Shinobi:_ Approximately 70,000 members.

 _Untrained Chakra Capables:_ Approximately 1,000,000 citizens.

Dominated by a harsh and unforgiving desert, Wind Country's population is the smallest of the Five Great Countries. Its climate is deadly to the inexperienced, and has led to a higher proportion of chakra capable individuals in terms of general population than many other nations to cope with the hard life to be found in Wind Country. 

* * *

  **Kaminari no Kuni:** Approximately 40,000,000 citizens

 _Samurai:_ Approximately 800,000 members.

 _Kumogakure Shinobi:_ Approximately 90,000 members.

 _Untrained Chakra Capables:_ Approximately 1,000,000 citizens.

The Land of Lightning is a primarily mountainous country, discouraging the vast agricultural industry that can be found in other countries. The citizens of Lightning Country typically make their homes in its hidden valleys, and it is the most technologically advanced of the Five Great Countries. Lightning Country's Hidden Village - Kumogakure - is the second most powerful of the hidden villages and the most militaristic.

* * *

  **Tsuchi no Kuni:** Approximately 80,000,000 citizens

 _Samurai:_ Approximately 1,000,000 members.

 _Iwagakure Shinobi:_ Approximately 80,000 members.

 _Untrained Chakra Capables:_ Approximately 500,000 citizens.

Protected from other countries by vast mountain ranges, Earth Country boast the second highest population of any one nation. Most of its citizens can be found making a prosperous living in mining and manufacturing industries, as its barren terrain does not lend to agricultural pursuits. Iwagakure is the hidden village of the Land of Earth, and is considered the third most powerful shinobi village. Due to its geographical isolation, Tsuchi no Kuni's civilian government is more concerned with internal enemies and has allocated a larger portion of its budget to training and maintaining a trained force of samurai.

* * *

 **Mizu no Kuni:** Approximately 35,000,000 citizens

 _Samurai:_ Approximately 200,000 members.

 _Kirigakure Shinobi:_ Approximately 50,000 members.

 _Untrained Chakra Capables:_ Approximately 300,000 citizens.

Comprised entirely of islands, Water Country boasts of a rich fishery and the largest naval force in the known world. However, generations of bloodline purges and civil wars have greatly reduced the population of the country, and cost the lives of many samurai and shinobi in an effort to regain internal stability. It is currently considered the weakest of the Five Great Countries, along with its hidden village. Those who have survived the continuous cycle of war in Mizu no Kuni are, however, considered premiere warriors.

* * *

  **Tetsu no Kuni:** Approximately 5,000,000 citizens.

 _Samurai_ : Approximately 3,000,000 members.

 _Shinobi_ : None.

 _Untrained Chakra Capables_ : Approximately 50,000 citizens.

A cold and desolate land, the Land of Iron is the remaining rump state of a once continental empire. Unusually, it is not governed by a daimyo but instead is ruled by a Shogun. The Shogun is also the ruler of the nation's samurai, who make up a military bureaucracy that directly governs the citizens of the country. Considered a great power despite its small size, Tetsu no Kuni is the most powerful country on the continent outside of the Five Great Countries, and the intelligentsia of the known world suspect it may soon supplant Mizu no Kuni in the hierarchy of nations.

The political neutrality of Iron Country is guaranteed by treaties that arrange money transfers from several other nations, allowing the resource poor nation to afford the largest concentration of skilled samurai in the known world and its citizens to enjoy higher living standards than many other countries.

Tetsu no Kuni contains the unique and fearsome _Blood Prison,_ an ancient facility whose method of construction has been lost to time and which prevents chakra manipulation within its confines save by those who wear one of a limited number of necklaces.

* * *

  **Ame no Kuni:** Approximately 1,500,000 citizens.

 _Samurai_ : Approximately 15,000 members.

 _Amegakure Shinobi_ : Approximately 10,000 members.

 _Untrained Chakra Capables_ : Approximately 200,000 citizens.

Situated between three of the Five Great Countries, the Land of Rain has served as the battleground of choice for wars for centuries. A mud-filled land where the sun seldom shines and where rain almost constantly pours, Ame no Kuni survives through an extreme level of industrialization and limited exports of its rare and powerful medicines.

The state is notoriously isolationist, as any attempt at central government was destroyed by internal and external warfare until Sanshouo no Hanzo united the nation under the governing authority of its shinobi village. Fear of Hanzo's strength and a staunchly neutral policy has enabled Ame no Kuni to begin to grow again, though it is doubtful the ravaged and dismal land will ever be considered an international power.

* * *

   **Taki no Kuni:** Approximately 20,000,000 citizens.

 _Samurai_ : Approximately 100,000 members.

 _Takigakure Shinobi_ : Approximately 40,000 members.

 _Untrained Chakra Capables_ : Approximately 800,000 citizens.

Taki no Kuni is a prosperous and green country, renowned for its natural beauty and medicinal exports. Situated between Earth and Fire Countries, Waterfall Country has luckily escaped suffering as a battlefield between the struggles of its more powerful neighbours due to the nearby presence of the largest contingent of samurai in the known world.

Taki no Kuni enjoys close relations with the neighbouring Land of Iron, and the Shogun has powerful influence in the court of Waterfall Country's daimyo. Takigakure - Waterfall Country's shinobi village - is the only village outside of the Five Great Countries to have one of the fearsome bijuu in its possession, and is considered the most likely village to merit a Kage in the future.

* * *

  **Oto no Kuni:** Approximately 10,000,000 citizens.

 _Samurai_ : Approximately 50,000 members.

 _Otogakure Shinobi_ : Approximately 20,000 members.

 _Untrained Chakra Capables_ : Approximately 200,000 citizens.

The Land of Sound is a relatively new country, replacing the earlier Land of Rice Paddies after the unification of its warring shinobi clans into a single organization. Nevertheless, its main export remains rice and other foodstuffs to the nearby Land of Iron. Tensions between the renamed country and its neighbours have deteriorated as its ambitious young shinobi village has worked hard to cut into the mission roster of neighbouring shinobi countries.

With the explicit support of Otogakure by Oto no Kuni's enterprising daimyo, the number of ronin emigrating from Oto no Kuni has hit an all-time high.

* * *

  **Kusa no Kuni:** Approximately 15,000,000 citizens.

 _Samurai_ : Approximately 70,000 members.

 _Kusagakure Shinobi_ : Approximately 30,000 members.

 _Untrained Chakra Capables_ : Approximately 300,000 citizens.

A country of long grass and wide open plains, Kusa no Kuni remains the quickest and easiest route between Hi no Kuni and Tsuchi no Kuni. Consequently, the nation has come under fire as a battlefield between the two Great Countries and their shinobi villages. Generations of blood ties between daimyo have closely allied the fertile Land of Grass to the powerful Land of Fire, and detractors often accuse Kusa no Kuni of being little more than a client state to the most powerful of the Five Great Countries.

Similarly, a standing alliance between Kusagakure and Hi no Kuni's Konohagakure has existed since the days of the Second Shinobi World War, and the ties between the two hidden villages are commonly viewed as the most jovial as can be found between different shinobi factions.

* * *

  **Locations:**

* * *

  _Hokuryu -_ An industrial town in Hi no Kuni. Roughly 500 miles from Konohagakure. Population 10,000.


	4. Commentary: Jutsu Rank and Chakra Overload

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or: Why Naruto doesn't just huff and puff and blow Kumo's house down.

Another conversation that we co-authors belabored over was the fundamental differences in the classification of techniques. 

We determined that no, you cannot just overload a C-rank Katon jutsu to advance it to the level of an A or S-rank technique, there would be an overload, causing the jutsu to effectively blow up in your face. However, lower rank jutsu have the advantage in being much easier to master, as well as being significantly less taxing. 

Otherwise Naruto with his insane reserves could just dump a load of chakra into Fuuton: Daitoppa and absolutely waste nations.


	5. Commentary: Henge no Jutsu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or: Why every other fangirl can't pay for their own made-to-order Uchiha Sasuke.

After some discussion we decided that the transformation technique, as we see it in canon Naruto, doesn’t make any damn sense. There are a massive amount of fluctuations in terms of how the henge is presented in canon Naruto. One one hand, we have Naruto transforming himself into a literal Fuuma Shuriken which is promptly thrown by Sasuke. I don’t know about the rest of the Naruto fanbase, but Naruto probably couldn’t have been thrown like that, at least when a small dose of reality is administered. We also have Akamaru henge’ing into Kiba, or even both partners working together becoming a massive two-headed dog. And last but not least, we have Naruto single-handedly transforming both himself and Gamabunta into a literal incarnation of the Kyuubi, using its claws to grasp Shukaku. 

To our eyes, that does not exactly seem like a flimsy genjutsu facade. Regardless, our current stance on the issue for the purposes of this story is that the henge is an illusionary technique in its most basic form. As in, similar to the typical academy bunshin. However, when employed by a skilled user that has mastered the jutsu, or one that has sufficient chakra reserves to sustain a more advanced version, the henge becomes a chakra construct along the lines of the shadow clone. While it may not be able to take a solid hit, it does have legitimate substance and can be used on the offensive. 

It just feels as though the idea that any minimally skilled Academy student has the ability to physically transform themselves into anyone or any _thing_ else is absurd. 

This is not to say that with ninjutsu physical transformation is _impossible_. Something like the Inuzuka’s clan jutsu, where they merge with their dogs to become a larger two-headed beast, is an advanced technique that allows them to physically change their form and temporary merge it with their dogs. This may also account for Naruto transforming himself into a literal Fuuma Shuriken - as it may then be dismissed as him accidentally stumbling on an advanced self-created version of transformation that is fueled with his unique enormous personal chakra reserves.


	6. Commentary: Bakuton and Bomb Diffusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or: Why you can't just spank Iwa's entire Explosion Corps with a good ol' touch o' Raiton.

We had concerns over Deidara’s (and by extension Iwa’s) explosion release. How could Deidara become an S-rank nukenin by relying solely on Bakuton jutsu, when Sasuke is able to diffuse all his techniques with a single application of lightning chakra? If that was all it took, the entire Explosion Corps would have an enormous and public weakness after an enemy shinobi figured it out. Upon weighing it, we came up with a solution that satisfied us. 

Bakuton, at its heart, is a kekkei genkai that mixes lightning chakra with earth chakra. The earth chakra alters the chemical composition of the clay substance to make it explosive, and the lightning chakra provides the charge that creates ignition. However, it’s mixed at a very specific ratio, with a specific charge. Applying lightning chakra randomly just results in an uncontrolled explosion. Applying (for this example) a negative charge at the right chakra ratio leads to controlled detonation. Only by applying the appropriate charge in the appropriate amount (positive in this example) can one diffuse a Bakuton technique after it’s been armed. 

Sasuke, by virtue of the Sharingan, is able to see chakra. Thus, he’s able to measure out the appropriate ratio of lightning chakra that’s necessary to diffuse the bombs associated with the Bakuton kekkei genkai. While we recognize that this makes Sasuke uniquely advantaged against Bakuton jutsu, we feel that it eliminates a glaring weakness without making the kekkei genkai overly powerful (as it would be if you couldn’t diffuse it at all).


	7. Commentary: S-Rank Limitations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or: The dilemma of ranking Raikiri and Bijuudama together, and placing hax0r god Madara in the same tier as Deidara.

A serious question that occurred to us as far as the Naruto ranking system is concerned is how you can place a powerful, but relatively contained technique like Kakashi's Raikiri in the same ranking class as the landscape altering Bijuudama or moon-creating Chibaku Tensei? Deidara is rated as an S-rank master killer, so where on the scale does that place a freak of nature like Uchiha Madara or Senju Hashirama?

Our answer to this was to add new classes to the ranking system. Obviously, we're going with the fanon concept of a SSS rank. And we wanted to just sensibly slide an SS class in there to put monsters like Sarutobi Hiruzen on while reserving the top tier for the true freaks. This requires us to jiggle around with the ranking of several techniques and characters. The ranking system we have in canon Naruto is incredibly subjective as it is, so we decided to set out the sliding scale the we're using to rate shinobi and techniques, as well as a few golden rules in regards to the minimum ranking of certain achievements.

For the E-C ranks, we simply stuck with the canon interpretation of those ranks. Academy student to genin to chuunin. It's at B-rank where things diverge some. In canon, B-rank techniques are defined as "intended for the jounin or chuunin levels". We've cut the chuunin part out of that. Within the Two Realms universe, a B-rank jutsu is one intended use by a regular joe jounin. And for shinobi, the B-rank is for regular joe jounin. Randoms like Satetsu would be rated as "B".

Your typical well-trained samurai would also rate within the B-rank.

It's when ranking ups from B to A that we get into the realm of elite jounin. Famous shinobi like Hatake Kakashi or Hozuki Mangetsu are in this tier. Similarly, techniques that rank A are usually indicative of mastery of an element of some form of shinobi techniques. The Chidori automatically ranks A because its use when mastered reflects elemental manipulation mastery. Similarly, the Rasengan ranks A automatically because mastering it requires mastery of shape manipulation (which is not to say that simply use is mastery. In canon, Sasuke generates a Chidori with nine hand seals. It's not until he's able to summon it without seals at all that he's mastered the jutsu and by proxy elemental manipulation).

The gap between S-rank Kage class shinobi and techniques is even larger than the gap between B and A rank. Your typical Kage (obviously) or notorious Akatsuki nukenin belongs in this tier. Uchiha Itachi is considered an S-rank shinobi. Consider the differences between his skills and that of Kakashi. The Sannin are also placed in this tier, so consider the difference between someone of Zabuza's skill level and someone of Jiraiya's. It's significant. The second rule (since mastery of element or shape manipulations earn an automatic A rank) is that if a technique requires both shape and elemental manipulation mastery then it automatically places within the S-rank tier. Hence why Raikiri, Chidori Senbon, and Chidori Eisou now rank S.

That's not to say the power of a technique is discounted, but complexity is an enormous factor in ranking a technique. The raw destructive force of a Katon: Goukakyuu exceeds that of a Chidori, yet the simplicity of the technique means it ranks only a C. The Oodama Rasengan on the other hand, may possibly rank S because although it doesn't require much more complexity than a regular Rasengan, the power input and destructive potential factor in. This is a similar situation to the Chidori Nagashi, which isn't much more complex than the original Chidori [as it's simply a Chidori release from the whole body rather than one hand] but is more chakra intensive.

Promoting these techniques into the S class requires that other S-rank techniques be promoted into SS rank or even SSS in order to maintain some degree of uniformity within the power projection (as well as within the complexity) of techniques within the class. The complex and destructive Rasenshuriken would belong in the SS rank, and techniques such as the both complicated and landscape geography re-arranging bijuudama would belong in the SSS class. Similarly, shinobi that belong in the SS rank are those Kage level shinobi that stand a tier above the rest. Warriors like Sarutobi Hiruzen, Ryotenbin no Onoki, and Sanshouo no Hanzo while in their prime. Legends with such power output that they're able to defeat multiple S-class enemies (as Hanzo defeated the Sannin). Senju Tobirama would also rate as an SS class shinobi, as would Nagato.

The SSS rank of shinobi is thus reserved for the true freaks of nature. Indra and Ashura. Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama. Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke after receiving the power of Hagoromo. The Rikudo Sennin himself. His brother Hamura.


	8. Commentary:  Haruno Sakura as the Daughter of Civilians

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or: Sakura and one of the few tropes fanon has created around her that actually makes sense.

The common fanfiction trope of having Sakura be the daughter of civilians is funnily enough one of the few clichés that actually makes sense regarding this kunoichi. We like to keep the backgrounds of the characters a bit diverse, so even though the anime makes both parents shinobi, we have only kept their names and appearances, making them merchants instead. We also can't imagine two shinobi parents allowing their daughter to be the dangerously useless kunoichi that canon Sakura is at the start. The Harunos are apparently at the least chuunin level ninja, yet they can't be bothered to teach their daughter a single technique? This is not only odd - as parents would typically pass knowledge to their children, but almost criminally negligent. One would think that her parents would want her to come back alive and have a successful career. Making her parents civilians however, allows for a pretty decent explanation of how Sakura typically starts off in terms of canon Naruto, and will apply for all the fics that follow this world model.


	9. Commentary: Regional Black Ops Variants

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or; How everyone decided to name their own covert ops units instead of stealing from Konoha.

ANBU - Konoha's titular Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai. The original canon Special Assassination and Tactical Squad. Marks its agents with an animal mask motif. Example callsigns are Crow, Dog, or Bear. 

SHOJI - Stands for Shomen Onmitsu Jigyoubu, or the Frontal Covert Operations Unit. It’s Kumo’s equivalent to Konoha’s ANBU. Rather than using the animal mask motif that Konoha prefers, they mark their masks with Kanji. Example callsigns are Reimei, Dendō, or Yume. 

SENMU - Iwagakure's Himitsu no Senjutsu Chīmu. The Secret Tactical Team identifies its members in the field by using masks that depict yōkai. Example callsigns are Tsuchigumo, Kitsune, or Oni. 

BUNSHŌ - Shortened from Bunrui Ninmu no Shōtai, which is Kiri's Classified Missions Platoon. Members are identified with graphical depictions of the movement or state of water. Example callsigns are Riptide, Whirlpool, or Rain. 

KUTAI - is Suna's Tokubetsuna Keiryaku no Daitai. Members of the Special Stratagem Battalion forgo masks entirely, preferring to use turbans to cover their hair and faces. They embroider the cloth with depictions of insects, and as such have callsigns like Scorpion, Dragonfly, or Beetle.

Masks and callsigns rotate for all members of the special ops to preserve anonymity, including the commander. Instead, within the forces commanding officers have the ability to identify their rank as well as callsign through the seal matrix. When the village sends a shinobi on a mission that requires deniability on the part of the village, all assigned masks are swapped out for standard issue generic white ones. 


	10. Commentary: Physical Abnormalities in Jinchuuriki

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or: How not everyone gets cute whiskers or raccoon eyes.

Ajax brought up the question of taking the jinchuuriki and giving them different features that they inherit from their bijuu. As it is in canon, there's really no consistency with it. Naruto has whiskers that are implicitly related somehow to exposure to Kurama's chakra. And before the Rasa Magnet Release scene, the raccoon rings around Gaara's eyes were universally attributed to Shukaku. Yet there seems to be no consistency about it. No other jinchuuriki - including past vessels of the bijuu those two currently contain - seem to have any physical attribute that they inherit from the beast. 

As far as we've discussed, we feel that being a jinchuuriki has to have consequences. Both positive and negative attributes that affect them not only when they're in a Stage One or Stage Two transformation, but in their everyday life as well. Changes both cosmetic and internal. So after some hashing out about the different beasts, this is the list we've come up with:

 **Gaara** \- contains the one-tailed tanuki. As such, he has the eye rings of the tanuki, as well as the claws and fangs of one. Additionally, he carries similar blue areas of pigmentation that can be seen on Shukaku himself. Like a raccoon dog, he has a heightened sense of hearing and smell compared to a normal human.

 **Yugito** \- contains the two-tailed bakeneko. Unlike canon, her eyes are slitted - like Matatabi's. She also has fangs and claws that constantly require sharpening, similar to a cat. Her senses of hearing and smell are heightened, and she has significantly more night vision than a regular human. Her body is marked by dark areas of pigmentation that mimic the black swirls seen on Matatabi's form. Like a cat, she's unable to taste sweet things, but makes up for it with an increased sense of balance.

 **Yagura** \- contains the three-tailed giant turtle. He inherits webbed fingers and feet from Isobu, as well as numerous areas where his body generates scales or leathery calluses rather than normal human skin. Like Yugito, he enjoys exceptional night vision. He has organs in his ears that map water and air pressure, and specialized cells in his nasal cavity that increase his sense of smell on land and permit him to smell underwater. 

**Roshi** \- contains the four-tailed monkey. The most dramatic adaption Roshi has is the replacement of his typical human feet with grasping limbs that are closer to a monkey's or an ape's. Roshi has increased muscle mass in both his legs and arms, which is ideal for taking to the canopy in battle. He has elongated blunt fangs, and thick red hair carpeting his body. Like a monkey, he has a greater sense of smell than a normal human, but is also red-green colourblind. 

**Han** \- contains the five-tailed Kokuo, who is a blend between horse and dolphin. Han inherits horizontal pupils from his tenet, and as such can differentiate colours better at night along with increased vertical motion detection. Han has a pair of horns curving back from his hairline, which he typically conceals with a wide-brimmed hat. Like most jinchuuriki, his sense of smell and hearing is improved. Lastly, Han is marked with white hair from Kokuo.

 **Utakata** \- contains the six-tailed slug. The most visibly human of the jinchuuriki. Nonetheless, Utakata suffers from nearly constant cool and clammy skin, as well as perspiring slime. He has glands in his mouth and throat the enable him to vomit corrosive slime on command, and as such his saliva is always at least slightly acidic. Like a slug, he has also developed an internal remnant of a shelf beneath the subcutaneous tissue of his back. 

**Fuu** \- contains the seven-tailed beetle. Rather than keratin, her nails and hair are composed of various forms of chitin. Her skin is covered in fine cilia that enable her to detect vibrations in the air, and she has interlocking protrusions over her elbows and knees. Fuu has the capacity to create a physical gill in her throat like a beetle does and use it for underwater respiration. 

**Kirabi** \- contains the eight-tailed squid-ox. Like Han, B has horizontal pupils with increased colour differentiation in various lights - but like an ox has difficulty differentiating blue and green shades, as well as a small set of horns protruding from his forehead that he typically cuts down. B has no canines, instead having a set of teeth composed entirely of molars and incisors. Like most jinchuuriki, his sense of smell and hearing is improved. Lastly, B has glands in his mouth that are able to secrete black ink. 

**Naruto** \- contains the nine-tailed fox. His whisker birthmarks are obvious to the world, and like most jinchuuriki he has a heightened sense of hearing and smell. Compared to normal humans, he has elongated canines and nails. Initially, the Yondaime's seal holds back most of the Kyuubi's chakra and thus limits physical changes. As his exposure to the demonic chakra increases however, he comes to permanently develop slitted eyes with dark pigmentation over the eyelids. 

Additionally, whenever a jinchuuriki accesses the chakra of the bijuu they contain, their bestial features become more exaggerated. Han grows a second pair of horns behind the first, for instance. Yugito's eyes turn heterochromatic and she develops whiskers. Naruto's lips turn black and his whiskers grow noticeably thicker. Fuu's eyes turn compound and her fingers become segmented as well.


	11. Commentary: The Naruto Timeline

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or: There's no such thing as time-travelling Hoshikage.

On examination of a few of the anime only arcs, it's really obvious that the Naruto timeline is all fucked up. Manga artists can't into math, I suppose? Hiruzen is 69 years old when he dies, and was part of the first generation of shinobi that Konoha produced. Konoha was the first hidden village, yet somehow Hoshigakure has existed for 200 years prior to the start of the series? Either the Hoshikage is a time traveler and Hoshigakure has existed utterly secretly for more than a century prior to the founding of the hidden villages, or the dates are wrong. Kakashi supposedly graduated from the Academy at age 5, and he became a chuunin by age 6. Obito and Rin both graduated at age 9 and became chuunins at 11. This means that for the three of them to be on same team during the time of Kakashi Gaiden, both Obito and Rin should've been four years older than Kakashi.

 

Anyway, all these little details have just niggled up until it's become an irredeemable cock up. Therefore, we've endeavored to straighten out the timeline and post it here for our readers. Taking the notion that Hiruzen is part of the first generation, and that he was nearly 70 at the time he died in canon, we'll add a decade on there and say the village was founded eighty years prior to the first Chuunin Exams that are seen in the series. Any more than two decades and Hiruzen would arguably be part of the second generation of shinobi raised for the village, but if he's born at the very tail end of his generation that raises a few problems with Tsunade being old enough to have known her grandfather as a child considering how young Hiruzen was when he became the Sandaime Hokage.

* * *

 

 **Shared Two Realms Belonging to Man Timeline** :

 

Year Zero - Founding of Konohagakure. Uchiha, Senju, Aburame, Hyuuga, and Akimichi Clans unite to found the village.

 

Year One - Shimura and Sarutobi clans join Konohagakure. Ei the First founds Kumogakure in response to movements within Hi no Kuni.

 

Year Two - Yamanaka and Nara Clans join Konohagakure. Ishikawa founds Iwagakure after the initial successes of both Konoha and Kumo.

 

Year Three - Inuzuka Clan joins Konohakure. Uzushiogakure and Sunagakure founded as hidden villages.

 

Year Five - Kirigakure founded by Byakuren.

 

Year Eight - Shimura Danzo is born.

 

Year Ten - Senju Hashirama is elected to be the Shodai Hokage.

 

Year Eleven - Sarutobi Hiruzen, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura are born.

 

Year Twenty Five - Uchiha Madara abandons Konohagakure.

 

Year Twenty Eight - Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru are born.

 

Year Thirty - The first Five Kage Summit is held by Hashirama to distribute the tailed beasts.

 

Year Thirty Two - Uchiha Madara returns to Konoha with the Kyuubi under his control. He duels Hashirama and loses. Senju Mito then becomes the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi.

 

Year Thirty Three - Senju Hashirama dies, and Senju Tobirama is elected as the Nidaime Hokage. Shortly after Hashirama's death, the First Shinobi World War commences.

 

Year Thirty Five - Senju Tobirama dies in battle, and Sarutobi Hiruzen succeeds him as the Sandaime Hokage.

 

* * *

 

 

After this point, The Kingdom diverges significantly from both Deadlock and One Thousand Nights. While Madara actually dies in Year Thirty Two in The Kingdom, even when he's alive between the years Thirty Two and Thirty Five, any influence he has is non-existent since he's too busy healing up from his wounds.


	12. Commentary: Kage Bunshin and Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or: Why Naruto can't simply spam clones and learn everything there is to know.

One of the most common concepts that gets abused as far as training Naruto goes is the idea that spamming hundreds of clones can exponentially increase learning speed. We don't blame anyone for following the concept - flawed as it is - because it's one that Kishimoto inadvertently encourages when he's having Naruto learn how to perform elemental manipulation.

Let's take a step back and consider what exactly the Kage Bunshin is. It's essentially forming a chakra construct body and then copying your mind into the construct so that it has limited intelligence and autonomy. This does not in any way justify increased speed of learning, because unless the clone is studying something different than the original, the original only ends up with two sets of memories about trying and failing to learn a technique. Spawning a clone doesn't make you any smarter. It doesn't give you extra insight. All it does it create a copy of you and sets it to a task to try and figure things out using the exact same resources and skills you already have.

At best, a clone can only speed up learning because the clone may stumble over the answer to a problem by accident. Otherwise, it doesn't even give the clone the extra experience you've gained training trying since it was spawned.

That's not to say clones are useless for learning. Technically speaking, you could read a book and set your clone to reading an entirely different one. Or you could study one jutsu while your clone is studying a different one. But when the clone dispels there will be worry about how much of that knowledge will actually be retained when you have an hour's worth or whatever of new information slammed into your brain in a split second.

Clones are useful. But they can't rationally function as some sort of magic bullet to let you increase training speeds exponentially.


	13. Commentary: Population

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or; It's a great big wide world folks.

A change we as authors wanted to make to the world of Naruto as a whole is populate it. We wanted to add more civilians, more samurai, more shinobi. More _people_. And in adding more people, those freakshows of power like Nagato or Mei or even Kakashi are real freakshows. It's hard to justify a legend when it seems like the world is populated by nothing but powerful prodigies. It's not all that impressive to be the _Shinobi no Kami_ when there are only 100,000 shinobi in the world that realistically has tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of people. You're urban legend status.

So we decided to significantly beef up village populations, as well as the population of samurai and the world in general. Part of this is to make the Hidden Villages viable city-states, and part of it is to fill a world that seems oddly empty. The known world of Naruto is probably the size of China, if not China plus Korea and Japan (to account for the Eastern Islands and Archipelagos). To put this in perspective - even in war-torn feudal China the population fluctuated between 30 and 60 million people. When considering the historical population trends of China and equalizing it to the advanced technology we sometimes see, the Naruto world could easily contain half a billion people (which would be the Chinese population between 1750 and 1850).

Our original calculations placed chakra capability at 1% of the population, to give Konoha an even 100,000 shinobi if Hi no Kuni had ten million citizens. This would leave no chakra capables for the samurai however. So we decided to boost it up even more to 100 million citizens in Hi no Kuni. By maintaining the same percent ratio, we could funnel the remaining 900,000 chakra capables into the samurai - thus ensuring that while shinobi are powerful, they're opposed by another chakra trained force that discourages them from trying to take over the country.

This is not to say that samurai form the bulk of Hi no Kuni's military. They don't - but their population serves in the roles of military commanders, as well as nobility and politicians.

What about people that fall through the cracks though? Surely not every citizen joins the samurai or shinobi? Of course they don't. Which is why we decided to double capability to 2% of the population, leaving a cool million to slip through the cracks and not end up getting trained to use chakra.

With these ratios in mind, we've constructed basic populations for the various countries and shinobi villages.

However, not all countries are equal. Geography and culture play a factor here. For example, there would be no shinobi at all in Tetsu no Kuni, since it's essentially a samurai military state with no civilian goverment. The samurai would hold all the power. Conversely, there would be a greater proportion of Sunagakure shinobi versus Kaze no Kuni samurai, because the skillset of a shinobi is more suited to surviving in the desert than samurai would be. There would also be more chakra capables as a whole in the Kaze no Kuni population (which would itself be limited), because individuals capable of wielding chakra in some form are more likely to survive the harsh environment. Basic evolution.


	14. Commentary: The Samurai

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or: Why the shinobi don't rule the world with an iron fist.

The strengths of a trained shinobi over the common man aren't debatable. They move faster, hit harder, and have a wealth of killing experience that ensures that any given shinobi is worth dozens of common untrained civilians. Hence the obvious question: If shinobi are so powerful, why don't they simply rule the world outright instead of hiding in the shadows?

Kishimoto gave the barest beginnings of the answer to this question when he introduced Tetsu no Kuni and the Kage Summit. That being said, the performance of the samurai in the battle against Sasuke was woefully disappointed. He cut them down like stalks of grass.

Therefore, in the interests of realism, we have decided that we will beef up the strength of samurai as versus shinobi. Consequently, in terms of raw combat prowess, the samurai  are able to equal, if not outmatch, their shinobi counterparts. This factor, combined with the fact that most samurai can be found seeded through their host nation's military and bureaucracy, serves to dissuade any attempt by shinobi to nakedly seize power.


	15. Commentary: Blood Prison

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or: Why the samurai make better gaolers than Kusa's shinobi.

Coming into our fics, one of the most important questions we had to wonder about was what content from the Naruto manga and anime - storywise - would end up in the final product of our works. Much of the filler got cut due to its typical shounen childness, however, some of it was worth keeping. One of those things was Hozuki Castle, or the Blood Prison.

Not as a story arc, since the whole "demon box" or whatever it's supposed to be is honestly a bit typical for Naruto filler. But the concept of an inescapable prison? One in which the shinobi and dangerous samurai criminals of our worlds can't escape from (or at least, aren't supposed to be able to escape from)? It's a perfect idea as far as original arc ideas go, since imprisonment can offer a very delicious macabre feel to the atmosphere.

Anyway, that's off topic.

Having decided to hold onto the Blood Prison as an institution, its location became questionable. Blood Prison is supposed to be a neutral prison that contains the known world's most dangerous criminals. It seems a bit odd to put that in the hands of Kusagakure - or even Kusa no Kuni as a whole - considering they're _not_ a neutral party in the least. It's implicit that Kusa is at least friendly with Konoha, since Iwa had to invade it to get to Konoha in the Third Shinobi World War. Not to mention as a mercenary village, Kusa is going to have its own interests to pursue, which may run directly counter to some of their customers. And if said customers pissed Kusa off enough? Well, looks like your criminal escaped, and sorry, but no refunds!

Therefore, we decided to move the location and governing authority of Blood Prison to an actually neutral state. And the only state that's all neutral all the time is Iron Country. Not to mention the whole snow hell thing makes it suitably desolate.

The other change that was made to Blood Prison going into it was to take the means of suppressing chakra out of the hands of the guards. To be clear, the necklace motiff is supposed to provide an excuse so that the guards of the prison retain power. But logically, if a means of suppressing chakra so completely that _the world's most dangerous criminals can't escape_ exists and is in the hands of a group of people, don't you think that somebody would try to replicate and weaponize that? By making the chakra suppression an inexplicable property of the building itself, we've prevented the inevitable subterfuge and attacks by countries worldwide to try to steal the means of simple chakra suppression. 


	16. Commentary: Rinne Tensei no Jutsu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or: Why can't anybody ever bring people back from the dead without getting ganked themselves?

Recently we started discussing the Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique. Now we have on the one hand, Nagato being absolutely drained of chakra by the end of Naruto's fight with Pein, yet he summons the King of Hell and restores life to tens of thousands of people on mere dregs on his chakra. This does not seem something that can be done if reviving a single person is supposedly so intensive that it always steals your life.

The loss of life cannot be attributed to summoning the King of Hell, since Nagato does it on a whim to repair his Peins and interrogate people. The other argument might be that the act of reaching into the afterlife costs the user their soul, yet Orochimaru and Kabuto are able to use Edo Tensei and drag souls out of the afterlife without sacrificing anything but a clone of White Zetsu. And White Zetsu's clones certainly don't have souls, even if the original might have.

Additionally, we felt that the proviso that reincarnation ninjutsu always kill you seems a bit arbitrary. Shouldn't one, with sufficient resources, be able to revive people? Naruto is walking around with a nearly limitless amount of bijuu chakra. Should not it be at least theoretically possible to revive people, even if it's cost intensive?

So we decided that we would alter reincarnation ninjutsu to permit revival of the dead, provided certain conditions were met. Rinne Tensei requires the Rinnegan obviously, but it also requires that someone be recently dead to work. This is necessary because otherwise Nagato would revive Yahiko in a heartbeat, even if it would cost him his life, and he certainly has access to Yahiko's preserved body.

There is an approximately one hour window between death and the migration of a person's soul to the afterlife, and it is during this period that a wielder of the Rinnegan can snatch up their soul and stuff it back in their body. Rinne Tensei is not, however, able to reach into the Pure Land, and when a soul reaches it that soul is not longer eligible for resurrection with the Rinne Tensei.

There is a way around this. By employing Edo Tensei, one pulls a soul from the Pure Land and places it in a construct body. This construct can then be brought to life with the Rinne Tensei, since the soul is present and thus able to be reached with the Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique. This accounts for Obito being able to resurrect Madara - who is long dead - while Nagato is unable to resurrect Yahiko.


	17. Commentary: Mangekyou Sharingan Jutsu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or; How the Uchiha don't have an unlimited godly gift bag inside their eyes

When we started coming together recently to pick up writing once more, the topic of the Mangekyou came up. To put it briefly, Kishimoto's Mangekyou Sharingan is a gift bag shit show of different abilities shoved into something that's ostensibly supposed to be common to the clan. Everyone has something different, except Sasuke and Itachi, and everyone shares Susano'o. At a certain point, it stretches believability. There has to be some sort of limit to what can be done with those eyes. So we've set out some rules about how it all works. 

The Uchiha clan essentially just has a pack of Mangekyou abilities. Depending on the personality and development of the Uchiha, they'll get any paired combination of them plus Susano'o - which is common to all Uchiha. Each eye has a different jutsu - or a different 'variation' of a jutsu, which may be any of the following: 

**Amaterasu** \- produces _uncontrollable_ black flames at the focal point of the user's vision. Cannot be controlled or extinguished outright, but can be sealed. Burns for seven days and seven nights. 

**Kagatsuchi** \- allows the possessor to control Amaterasu with shape transformation or extinguish it. 

**Tsukuyomi** \- a genjutsu that traps the victim in an illusory world under complete control of its wielder. Has a maximum time length of three days and three nights in genjutsu, which translates to three seconds in real time. Can be broken at any time by the wielder, or by enormous and chaotic application of chakra by the victim. 

**Kamui (Short Range Variation)** \- a space-time ninjutsu that transports the target to a pocket dimension (which is a common dimension accessible to any with Kamui). Can transport the user and those close to them to the pocket dimension, or allow them to exist partly in both dimensions and thus be vulnerable in neither.

 **Kamui (Long Range Variation)** \- a space-time ninjutsu that transports the target to a pocket dimension (which is a common dimension accessible to any with Kamui). Can transport anyone or anything in the user's length of sight to the Kamui dimension, or the user himself to the Kamui dimension.

 **Kotoamatsukami (Permanent Variation)** \- a mind controlling genjutsu that permanently rewrites the mind and desires of the target. Can only be used once a decade and requires eye contact.

 **Kotoamatsukami (Temporary Variation)** \- a mind controlling genjutsu that temporarily rewrites the mind and desires of the target. Can be used once a day on anyone in the general vicinity of the user.

Note - Each Mangekyou eye only has one technique within it, and each of the above jutsu are considered different techniques. Even different variations of the 'same' jutsu. And since the jutsu contained within an individual's eye depends on them and their personality, it's entirely possible to get two 'unrelated' techniques rather than both variations of the 'same' i.e Tsukuyomi in the left eye and short range Kamui in the right is entirely possible, depending on the Uchiha. One could even have Kagatsuchi in one eye and Kotoamatsukami in the other. 

Note - With the possession of an Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan the one jutsu per eye rule can be broken, for a maximum of two jutsu per eye plus Susano'o, depending on the original owner of the eyes taken to gain an Eternal Mangekyou. As such, under the rules set out, Sasuke with an Eternal Mangekyou gained using Itachi's eyes has access to Amaterasu in both eyes along with Kagatsuchi in his right and Tsukuyomi in his left.


	18. Commentary: Religion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or; How a world full of chakra and demons isn't atheism central.

As far as Kishimoto and most fanon goes, religion is an ignored aspect. Which makes no sense at all. Religion and spirituality is an enormous aspect of real life. And while we can see people forgetting about it if they're just going to shounen it up - kids stuff for kids - if you're trying to build a realistic Naruto world you have to at the least make some mention of it.

So going forth, we've decided that spirituality in the Naruto world will borrow heavily from real world religions and ideas, _though they will be different_.  Therefore, if you're reading our works and say "Hey that's not how they actually do it in X country", we already know. We're editing and building up. Not literally copying and pasting.

Like the real world, the Naruto world has significant differences in religion. In canon, it's kind of presented as this mostly monocultural Japan-lite with a few cosmetic differences. There no serious historical differences between nations presented. No different languages. No wildly different cultural systems. Nothing. And for an area that's maybe half the size of Asia, that's senseless. So while there will be common cultural elements based on history - i.e roughly similar religions and similar language based on a history former of rule by a single unified Imperial government, there will also be differences that justify conflict based on religious, ethnic, or cultural differences. Further, the isolation and secrecy of shinobi clans would also lead to the existence of further denominations within the general whole common to a country.

* * *

**Hi no Kuni Pantheon, Concepts, and Other Figures  
**

_Izanagi_ \- Father and Ruler of all Gods, who rules over the Pure Land according to official doctrine as advanced by the state-sponsored Fire Temples. Contrary to the State Religion, the Uchiha and Senju Clans assert that that Izanagi is a retainer of Tsukuyomi who judges the dead and rules on his behalf in Yomi.

 _Izanami_ \- Mother of all Gods and wife to Izanagi, who rules on his behalf in Yomi. Contrary to the State Religion, the Uchiha and Senju Clans assert that that Izanami is a retainer of Tsukuyomi who judges the dead and rules on his behalf in Yomi.

 _Amaterasu_ \- Goddess of the Sun and Fire according to official doctrine as advanced by the state-sponsored Fire Temples. Contrary to the State Religion, the Uchiha and Senju Clans assert that that Amaterasu rules over the material world and light, is Queen of the Gods and wife to her brother Tsukuyomi.

 _Tsukuyomi_ \- God of the Moon and Night according to official doctrine as advanced by the state-sponsored Fire Temples. Contrary to the State Religion, the Uchiha and Senju Clan assert that Tsukuyomi rules over the spiritual world and darkness, is King of the Gods who rules the Pure Land, and husband to his sister.

 _Susano'o_ \- God of the Wind and Storms according to official doctrine as advanced by the state-sponsored Fire Temples. Contrary to the State Religion, the Uchiha and Senju Clan assert that he is the tempestuous God of Valor and War. The Uchiha further claim Susano'o married a human woman known as Kaguya-hime, and fathered the Rikudo Sennin from whom all Uchiha and their degenerated Hyuuga cousins descend, which the Senju deny.

 _Inari_ \- Fox-goddess of Fertility and Agriculture according to official doctrine as advanced by the state-sponsored Fire Temples. The North and Eastern rural districts of Hi no Kuni assert that she is married to the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

 _Kyuubi no Youko -_ A wild and murderous demon according to official doctrine as advanced by the state-sponsored Fire Temples. The North and Eastern rural districts of Hi no Kuni assert that rather than a demon, he is God of Foxes and Punishment who punishes the world when it descends too far into wickedness at command of Izanagi. Within the Uchiha Clan, the Kyuubi is claimed to be created by Susano'o to serve as the sword of the Uchiha Clan due to the ability of the Mangekyou Sharingan to control him.

 _Ryujin_ \- God of Dragons and the Sea according to official doctrine as advanced by the state-sponsored Fire Temples, to serve their three children and guard creation against unruly spirits in hell. Refugees from Uzushiogakure claim that Ryujin is the special patron of their people, who protected their homeland until imprisoned by evil spirits.

 _The Rikudo Sennin_ \- Father of all shinobi and chakra. According to the official doctrine as advanced by the state-sponsored Fire Temples and the Senju Clan, he was the human student of the gods and learnt the ways of ninjutsu from them, which he promptly spread to the world along with the Hi no Ishi. The Senju Clan claim sole descent from him. The Uchiha Clan however assert the divine origins of the Rikudo Sennin as child of Susano'o and Kaguya-hime, and the descent of the Uchiha and Hyuuga from him. The Rikudo Sennin ascended into heaven according to Uchiha Clan myth, and intercedes of behalf of his descendants with the gods. 

 _Kaguya-hime_ \- Mortal wife of Susano'o and mother of the Rikudo Sennin in the Uchiha Clan tradition.

 _Kotoamatsukami_ \- the Distinguished Heavenly Kami that the Uchiha Clan assert who have granted their favour to the clan and added a Mangekyou technique to their arsenal in exchange for special veneration. Currently includes Izanagi, Izanami, Tsukuyomi, Amaterasu, and Susano'o.

 _Kamui_ \- the divine beings the Uchiha Clan favour above the other Kotoamatsukami because of the Uchiha Clan myth that the Kamui are their ancestors.

 _Heavenly Eyes That See The Truth of All of Creation_ \- A title given to the Mangekyou Sharingan within the Uchiha Clan, due to myths of its divine origin and descent from the Kamui.

 _Hi no Ishi_ \- The Will of Fire. According to the state-sponsored Fire Temples and the Senju Clan, the ideal that love is the key to peace that was passed down from the Gods.

 _The Bijuu_ \- demons created by human malice and wickedness that rain destruction down on humanity and will only be permanently banished when the whole world accepts the Hi no Ishi.


	19. Commentary: Chakra, Bijuu, and Summons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or; Why everyone weren't zombies before Kaguya ate the fruit of the Shinju and why the Bijuu aren't Greenpeace's wet dream.

To put it quite frankly, in Kishimoto's canon chakra is an utter clusterfuck. It's produced by mingling the physical and spiritual energies of a person, and you'll die if you run out of it. By the way - there are giant monsters wandering around that are masses of chakra that are self-replenishing and sustained by well, nothing really.

Don't forget that you can toss in this mysterious natural energy stuff to really beef it up though.  And did we mention that before Kaguya came down on high, everyone was wandering around without it - but now you'll die if you run out?

So we've decided that it's best to straighten things out into a relatively coherent whole rather than leaving it as a confusing and indefinite mess.

* * *

  **Concepts**

 _ **Chakra** _ \- A form of energy most commonly created by mingling spiritual energy to give it intent and physical energy to give it animation. Naturally mingles in the chakra coils of the body to produce a baseline constant level of chakra. Death follows "chakra" exhaustion not because chakra is the energy of life, but because in order for chakra to be formed there must be physical and mental energy to create it, and if there is no chakra that means there is no physical or mental energy. Note that chakra is inherent to creatures with souls, rather than the result of the Shinju fruit, and all that Kaguya did when eating the fruit is consume the enormous spiritual and physical energy of the Shinju as well as gain the ability to shape chakra.

 _ **Physical** **Energy**_ -A form of energy that comes from the vitality of a body. "Stamina" and "life force" are rough but suitable synonyms. Physical energy alone is what fuels Yang release techniques, though Yang release techniques do require a very minimum of spiritual energy to define their intent. Physical energy is also misnamed "positive chakra", especially in relation to the construction of a Bijuudama. Note that in a reversal of canon, "positive chakra" is white rather than black to better reflect its Yang association. All physical energies are not equal, and an individual's physical energy can have unique characteristics depending on the body of that person.

 _ **Spiritual** **Energy**_ \- A form of energy that comes from the character of a soul. "Will" and "soul force" are rough but suitable synonyms. Spiritual energy alone is what fuels Yin release techniques, though Yin release techniques do require a very minimum of physical energy to animate their action. Spiritual energy is also misnamed "negative chakra", especially in relation to the construction of a Bijuudama. Note that in a reversal of canon, "negative chakra" is black rather than white to better reflect its Yin association. All spiritual energies are not equal, and an individual's spiritual energy can have unique characteristics depending on the soul and personality of that person.

 _ **Natural** **Energy**_ \- A form of energy that arises from the synergy of a world and permeates that world. "Equilibrium" and "environment force" are rough but suitable synonyms. Natural energy is blended with spiritual and physical energy to create nature chakra. Natural energy is also the main fuel behind senjutsu techniques, with a minimum of spiritual energy to give them intent and physical energy to animate them. Nature energy has the characteristic of seeking stasis and harmony with the biosphere at large, which is why it turns beings not built to run naturally on it or being not skilled enough at wielding it into stone. Safe usage of natural energy requires that spiritual energy exceeds that amount of nature energy within the body at all times.

 _ **Chemical** **Energy**_ \- A form of energy that arises from the chemical reactions of various compounds. "Transmutation" and "nuclear force" are rough but suitable synonyms. chemical energy is blended with spiritual and physical energy to create "chemical chakra". Chemical energy is also the main fuel behind "chemical techniques", such as the Mysterious Peacock Method, with a minimum of spiritual energy to give them intent and physical energy to animate them. Chemical energy has the characteristic of deconstructing chemical bonds, which is why is breaks down and eventually destroys most shinobi who use it. Safe usage of chemical energy requires that physical energy exceeds that amount of chemical energy within the body at all times.

 _ **Enhanced** **Chakra**_ \- While chakra is the result of combining physical and spiritual energy, chakra is not created by these two energies exclusively. Other forms of energy can be added to to the "mix" of energies that forms chakra. Chakra is best defined by advanced practitioners as a gestalt energy. Adding other forms of energy to the gestalt mix increases the amount of chakra available for use, or can substitute for lower inputs of other energies.

For example, if a shinobi has exactly equivalent ratios of physical and spiritual energy, he could add natural energy to increase the pool of chakra he has available. If that shinobi had however, less physical energy than spiritual energy, he could overcome the bottleneck on chakra his low physical energy places by replacing the physical energy component of chakra with a natural energy component. Adding external - i.e not native to the shinobi - forms of energy has risks however, which are overcome by having an excess of either physical or spiritual energy compared to the substitute energy. Whether physical or spiritual energy is required depends on the form of substitute energy used.

* * *

 

**Notes**

_**Chakra** **Affinity** -_   Now that we've laid out the basic rules of what exactly chakra is and where it comes about, we also need to take into account chakra affinities. The simplest solution would be to attribute it to spiritual energy. Because spiritual energy arises from the soul of an individual, it also retains the "personality" so to speak of that individual. This personality carries over into the chakra that's created when they mix their spiritual and physical energy, and expresses itself as a subconscious inclination to use a specific element of nature transformation, and is also the source of the "feel" of that person's chakra to a chakra sensor. 

This also means that technically an earth-shattering change in the personality of an individual can alter the feel of their chakra or even their affinity.

Each person has only one affinity, even when they possess a kekkei genkai. What a kekkei genkai does is not bestow a second affinity, but rather enable the person in question to emit two or more kinds of elemental transformation at a specific ratio at one time. It is the combination of two or more element transformations at a specific ratio that leads to "new" natures like Mokuton or Hyoton. In order for a shinobi with a kekkei genkai to use their new elemental transformation, they must be able to transform their chakra into whatever base elements that are used to create the new gestalt nature.

 ** _Bijuu_ ** \- Rather than being free-roaming masses of sentient and limitless energy, we've used the Gedo Mazo as a base for their concept. Like the Juubi and the Shinju itself, the nine bijuu are actually living creatures. What Hagoromo did when he created them was not simply plop nine balls of chakra on the ground and hope for the best. He constructed actual bodies for them, divided the chakra of the Juubi (which was supplied by Kaguya when she merged with the dead body of the Shinju), and then animated the nine constructed bodies with the Juubi's physical energy while creating souls imbuing them with its spiritual energy.

When it comes to bijuu that are not constructed of actual flesh like Shukaku and Matatabi, they still have bodies. They are simply like Houzuki shinobi with special bodies that can turn back and forth into a different non-flesh substance.

 ** _Kaguya and the Shinju_** \- Because we've put a lid on the whole "everyone before Kaguya was a zombie" idea, we have to redefine what exactly Kaguya stole when she consumed the fruit of the Shinju. So as far as the Two Realms 'verse is concerned, what Kaguya took from the Shinju was its physical and spiritual energy (killing it), as well as the ability to manipulate chakra (which no one had prior despite chakra being possessed by all beings with souls). This ability was passed down to her children, who passed it down to their children as well as their students with the Creation of All Things jutsu. All shinobi and samurai are either descended from Hamura, Hagoromo, or the students they imbued with the ability to manipulate chakra.

 _ **Summoning Creatures**_ \- Where exactly summons come from isn't explained for jack shit as far as Naruto canon is concerned. They're simply there inexplicably. So we've decided to clear that up with a very simple backstory. Summons are the results of Hagoromo's experiments with the Creation of All Things jutsu. He was human like the rest of us, so he had to practice creating life and souls before playing willy nilly with the world-destroying power of the Juubi. Since they were created from him, they can intrinsically use natural energy safely.

 _ **Six Paths Chakra -**_ The basic concept of energies and how they enhance chakra accounts for almost all of the various forms of chakra. Regular chakra is simply what it is. Sage chakra is simply that with the addition of natural energy. Bijuu chakra is simply chakra that comes from the nine tailed beasts, which originated in the Shinju. But this does leave an empty spot on the continuum about where exactly the chakra of Hagoromo and Hamura fit. It exhibits unique properties and unique abilities.

So we've decided to attribute it to the Otsusuki clan as a whole. _Boruto the Movie_ puts forth the idea that the Otsutsuki clan is from another dimension, so it would make sense that their chakra would have different properties and different abilities compared to the chakra of people from the 'Elemental Nations'. Their physical makeup is significantly different compared to regular humans. However, the Six Paths Power only runs in pure Otsutsuki. Kaguya had it. Her sons had it. But by the time of Indra and Ashura there was too much regular human in them to have full access to Six Paths Chakra, and the further-down-the-line descendants of Kaguya had so much human in them they had little no to access at all to Six Paths Chakra.


	20. Commentary: Mission Designation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or; how C-PE-446898 isn't just a random string of bullshit.

In the second chapter of One Thousand Nights, we encountered a flavour question. In the real world, missions receive strings of identifying characters and numbers so they can be filed within a military institution and kept track of. There's no indication of that in canon Naruto, so we've had to make our own up out of thin air. Hence, we've generated the following structure:

"C-PE-446898"

The first letter refers to the rank of the mission. Missions can be classified anywhere on the traditional scale of D to SSS. Additionally, a mission can be marked as E rank if it is technically a contract filed with the village but fails to meet requirements to be assigned to a shinobi. E-rank missions would be those given to Academy students or other persons affiliated with the village but not officially part of its military ranks. Similarly, an assignment may receive the 'U' classification if the mission doesn't fall within traditional expectations of what a mission _is_. Because isolated tasks may need to be assigned to shinobi and have paper trails but are not missions proper, they are unranked.

The second letter refers to the contractee. 'P' is given to all missions received from private entities. If the mission is contracted on behalf of the village itself, the second letter of the identifying string is instead 'K' for Konoha, 'I' for Iwa, and so on and so forth for any other village. For the purpose of character strings, missions from daimyo are also considered missions from private entities.

The third letter refers to the location of the mission. Any external mission conducted outside village borders is assigned 'E'. Any internal mission conducted within village borders is assigned 'N'.

The remaining characters are a randomly generated group of numbers that have no individual significance.


	21. Commentary: ANBU Seal Matrix

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or; Shezza is just that damn awesome

We give full credit for this idea to Shezza's amazing fic “Life in Konoha’s ANBU”. It’s a sensible and useful application of an otherwise queerly identifying mark for a shinobi black ops force.   


Essentially, we felt that if the ANBU tattoos had no purpose, why were they there? Why did they become so standardized that literally everyone in the force had them? It's a waste of resources and provides an unfortunate point of reference to identify ANBU operatives. But if the tattoos had a purpose, that is suddenly so much more forgiveable. 

So we decided to run with one of Shezza's ideas. 

The seals function as part of a communication matrix, allowing ANBU shinobi to wordlessly communicate with one another on the course of a mission. There is a degree of skill involved, and the more skilled a shinobi is at using the seals to communicate, the more complex the messages that can be conveyed are. The reasoning behind this is that the seal matrix, while on the surface is fuuinjutsu, is also a derivative of Yamanaka clan techniques that are able to be employed by untrained outsiders. 


	22. Commentary: One Shimura Danzo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or; How Danzo isn't kicking the dog every chance he gets

There’s confusion on the part of some of our readers about what Danzo’s doing and why he’s doing it.

Isn’t Danzo the epic final big bad evil of Sasuke’s revenge?

We’d like to move beyond that kind of 2D profiling. Typically, in fanon Danzo is represented in almost cartoonist supervillain terms. He becomes this utter monstrosity of cruelty and stupid decisions in order to provide authors someone to essentially bash and unite everyone against.

Instead, we decided to pursue realism and give him human strengths and weaknesses. He’s amoral, but unlike Kishi’s mad assassin power grabbing he does in the anime fillers, Danzo isn’t trying to kill Hiruzen every other Tuesday. He has too much potential as a flawed, but believable and relatable character to be left to rot in the evil dumpster of negativity.


	23. Commentary: Uchiha Madara as a Puppet Master

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or; How we don't have Sousuke Aizen running the show.

As writers we wanted to get away from Madara as the root of all evil in the world and attribute more misfortune and conflict to human nature and the military village system as a whole.

Rather than the result of decades of careful manipulation by one dude that can’t even leave the cave he lives in, much of the conflict within the shinobi world is inherent to human nature and the realpolitik conflict of nationalities and states. 

It takes a great deal of the gravity off of any sort of plot event if we learn that Madara has been pulling an Aizen and has been manipulating literally the entire course of world history. Does he, and by extension Obito, have a great deal of influence in the world?  Absolutely. However, there is no mind-numbingly overdone manipulation. Yagura is simply a piece of shit, not a Sharingan-hax-slave to Madara.  


	24. Commentary: ANBU vs. ROOT Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or; How Danzo doesn't teach cuddles and fun

When we were writing One Thousand Nights, concerns were raised in the early chapters before the Chuunin Exams about Sasuke and Naruto’s power in relation to each other, so we’ll address them here, even though doing so kind of lets the cat out of the bag as far as Sasuke’s surprises go. 

Sasuke and Naruto are roughly combat equal. This is a common motiff that we employ within the greater Two Realms universe as an essential constant. But in One Thousand Nights, we can't just say this. It must be justified. In doing so, we ended up pointing to the different ideologies that would inform ANBU’s training regime that Naruto experienced versus the ROOT training regime that Sasuke was mostly under. 

ANBU is a team-based organization, so each member is part of a whole and they develop their own skills outside of general shinobi discipline. Their specialized weaknesses would be covered by other members of the squad, so when Naruto trains under Kakashi, he’s being trained in the very basic shinobi disciplines. They’d straighten out his taijutsu, give him some ninjutsu, and beat ever more stamina and fighting skill into him. He doesn’t need to focus right off on learning how to seal or mix poison, because he’s only a genin in ANBU and would always have a commanding officer or teammates who help cover that weakness. They’re secondary goals, to be worked on after he becomes a decent shinobi.

ROOT is an organization based around the idea of a single man operation. Agents have to be trained in numerous disciplines and conditioned in very different ways compared to ANBU because they will almost always be operating alone or as a single Ne agent in a separate organization (whether it’s ANBU or other parts of the shinobi forces). So when Naruto was unlearning his flawed taijutsu forms and being taught the correct forms, Sasuke would have been splitting his time between learning introductory psychology and other things like the basic elements of fuuinjutsu (such as how to edit the delay of an explosive tag or disarm an enemy’s tag). When Naruto’s mind was being honed in preparation for more sensible forms of battle besides running in like an idiot, Sasuke would have been stumbling around drugged up on poison to build resistance to enemy substances. 

The end result of this would be that in one-on-one combat with no tools or tricks, Sasuke and Naruto would be roughly equal. Naruto would have more stamina, and Sasuke would have more skill, but the struggle would be that between equals and it would be up in the air who would win. It's because ROOT shinobi in general can be characterized as Jacks of All Trades and Masters of None. Under the ROOT regimen, Sasuke would have collected a disconnected group of skills where Naruto has been given a very solid foundation.  


If you introduce other considerations at the time of One Thousand Nights' Chuunin Exam arc, Sasuke dominates.  If you asked them to create a rudimentary poison, Naruto wouldn’t have a clue what to do. Naruto wouldn’t have any idea how to conduct an interrogation in the field. 

 


	25. Commentary: Danzo's Cursed Tongue Eradication Seals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or; How you can't just root out ROOT by asking everyone to 'Say Danzo'.

"How does Danzo's juinjutsu work?" This particular question was prompted by a reviewer asking why Sasuke and Fuu could speak Danzo's name, but not the old war hawk's plans. I'll admit that it was an oversight in the writing, but it's one that on reflection actually makes more sense than canon.

There are serious strategic problems with an all-encompassing seal that prevents its bearer from talking about anything related to Danzo or _Ne_ at all, and that is that it makes it very easy to discover who exactly is part of Ne. ANBU is ostensibly supposed to try and keep each member's mask and face apart, because the village may need plausible deniability regarding a shinobi's actions. And if not deniability about that, then at least they would want to try and reduce the risk that foreigners would know who exactly to target to try and get their hands on particular bits of information.

Ne is not a secret (it's too large for that), so they'd likely mimic ANBU in this regard and try to prevent people from associating specific shinobi with ROOT. That's why people would rarely work for Ne full time and would have other jobs they do to cover over their involvement with the organization. It's the blackest of ops, and arguably a private militia that's loyal to Danzo over the village, but as I said, it's not unknown. Just like Danzo himself is not unknown (if he was some no name shinobi, he would never have been a viable Rokudaime Hokage candidate). If people involved with Ne can't say anything at all about Danzo or ROOT, then it's very easy to discover if someone is a part of it. You just ask them to say Danzo's name, and if they can't, you have a Ne agent. Imagine how difficult it would then be to get ROOT spies into position anywhere. As an organization it's ability to infiltrate would be fucked.


	26. Commentary: The Jinchuuriki's Absolutely Insane Chakra Reserves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or; Naruto isn't the only shadow clone army out there.

In the fandom there is a general assumption that Naruto has what basically amounts to limitless chakra. He's portrayed as a well that never runs dry, but rarely do the other jinchuuriki get the same treatment he does in this field.

First, we must look back to the very beginning of the series along with the databooks. When Naruto is fighting to save Iruka from Mizuki, he uses the Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. From that point on, Naruto spends the rest of the manga spamming shadow clones like they're going out of style. And every time he does so, he provides proof that he graduated from the Academy with Hokage level chakra reserves.

We never see anyone else produce the sheer volume of clones that Naruto does. The technique, if it were not intensive, strategically lends itself to this purpose. That is to say, the more clones the better. If it's easy for you to produce a hundred, you should, rather than producing ten. More clones means more chances to attack, more distractions if you're trying to get away, ect.

Generally, efficiency and force projection both increase as the number of clones increase. Yet no one but Naruto ever does this, which suggests he's the only one who can spend the chakra needed. The fact that Kage Bunshin is a B-rank ninjutsu also supports this, because it can't be that hard to learn if Naruto manages it in a couple of hours.  
So the bottleneck with use and the reason for its rank must be chakra requirements rather than complexity.

The databook also claims the following: regarding the Mass Shadow Clone Technique: "A technique developed from the "Shadow Clone," a ninjutsu that creates clones with actual substance. Countless Shadow Clones... The exact number depends on the amount of chakra used, but in any case the amount of chakra consumed is far too great. For this reason, no ninja below Hokage, save for a limited few, can use this technique without risking their life. For that reason, the Shodai Hokage sealed this technique inside the Scroll of Seals as a forbidden move. The reason Naruto was able to learn this technique was his amazing stamina."

So because he uses the jutsu like this, Naruto must have ridiculous amounts of chakra. The question is, where did it come from? Some fics attribute it to his Uzumaki vitality, but we disagree. If Naruto's reserves were common to the clan as a whole, not only would they have conquered the continent, but at the least someone else would be capable of throwing so many clones about. It would be rare, but not one-in-a-kind like it is.

At this point, it becomes obvious. If it's not his ancestry, the only other explanation is his bijuu. And if Kurama is able to give Naruto what is essentially a limitless well of power, shouldn't the other jinchuuriki have the same? It makes sense given their status as human weapons. If Naruto tries to throw a shadow clone army at Yugito, there should be no surprise if she throws one right back.

It also means that when two jinchuuriki meet in the field there is no outlasting the other through 'Uzumaki chakra reserves'. Skill becomes the determining factor.


	27. Commentary: D-Rank Mission Frequency

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or; Team Seven isn't living D-Rank to D-rank.

Why doesn't Team Seven do D-ranks more than once a week in Deadlock?

Because they don't _need_ to, or _want_ to. Think about it, Kakashi himself is probably wealthy if not stinking rich from a long career in ANBU doing S-ranks (remember, even an A-rank was more than Tazuna's _entire_ _village_ could apparently afford, even if it _was_ poor).

Sasuke is likely similarly well off, as his parents were both head of the clan ( probably getting a generous stipend at the time, plus the perks of inheriting the wealth of any dead Uchiha through the generations that had no near next of kin) and former ninja (had savings built up from their career. Toss in Itachi's probably substantial wealth that would have been seized by Konoha after his 'treachery', and Sasuke is probably sitting on a good bit of money himself.

Plus, like Naruko he's going to draw from the orphan fund (which would exist in a military village for military orphans). Naruko would probably be listed in records as Kushina's daughter and have inherited her stuff in some trust fund (and much of Minato's via some Sarutobi book fudging). Plus whatever support her Godfather (one of the Sannin) gives her, which is probably paying her rent and bills himself.

Ironically it's Sakura hardest hit, since the only money she personally would have would be allowance from her (wealthy) parents.

So none of them  _ need _ to do D-ranks to pay the bills, and Kakashi gets more benefit out of training them harder and longer instead of wasting time on missions they don't actually need to do. The only purpose D-ranks have for Team Seven is for Kakashi to evaluate their team work in a controlled setting. And while the Hokage could assign missions in a military village, D-ranks aren't of a high enough importance to specifically request Team Seven's skill set (which is not specialized at this point anyway).

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Lighthouse Keeper’s Last Relay](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5100359) by [redlipstickkisses](https://archiveofourown.org/users/redlipstickkisses/pseuds/redlipstickkisses)




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